Everybody Loves a Parade

The local Christmas holiday season kicked off in earnest last week – ahead of this weekend’s “Black Friday” or even Black Thursday, with some stores set to reopen Thanksgiving night. The annual Grandin Village Christmas parade brought out thousands of spectators, and seemingly just as many parade participants.

Marchers included local schools, marching bands and merchants from the Grandin Village area like the Grandin Theatre, Local Roots, Viva La Cupcake and the Natural Foods Co-op.

There were also Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, church groups, bagpipers, ragtag bands, Vikings and, of course, Roanoke City Mayor David Bowers – he was last seen headed to a local pub with a bunch of those rowdy-looking Vikings.

Grandin Village merchants and eateries look forward to the annual parade since it attracts many that might not frequent the area otherwise. The Christmas parade ended as it always does, with Santa Claus waving to the crowd from atop a Roanoke City fire department truck.